Never Enough
by lawizeg
Summary: Asami falls ill suddenly, leaving her closest friend Avatar Korra at her side feeling more useless than ever. The pining between the pair becomes an undeniable deficiency–an abyss that draws them together in the midst of their tempest. This tumult is dark, deep, demanding. Will their bond prove stronger in the end?
1. I

Couldn't take it anymore, had to write this idea that came to me. None of Korra or Avatar belongs to me.

This is a shorter chapter to kick things off. Hope you stick around.

Korrasami is ruining my life.

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><p>Korra hears the news and uncertainty floods her mind then slithers into her gut, coiling with sickening pressure. Her lips part, pained and confused, and she finds she cannot speak. Not now, anyway. Her brain shorts and stutters through the words filtering through the phone–Asami. Hospital.<p>

_No._

Suddenly volition spikes through her chest as she realizes exactly where she needs to go, _right now_.

"I'll be right there–" Korra slams the phone down in her haste and speeds toward the bay with one woman on her mind. One friend. Korra finds her spot, leaps, flourishes, and finally connects with the water and sinks in, propelling herself through the water with empowered strokes toward the surface.

It's dark out. Korra is surrounded by black waves, keening, crashing, and shining with the city lights and stars all around but so far away. Quickly, she bends a small boat of ice and reaches her arms out toward the city and _pulls_, desperate to get closer.

Asami plagues her every thought.

Her throat seizes–that fear again–so she grits her teeth against the tear, pulling and reaching harder, harder into the tide for the speed she needs.

After barreling into the hospital, intent on continuing her barreling all the way to Asami's room, Korra realized she had no idea where her friend was. Brow tense with stress, Korra located the front desk and demanded the room number for "she", then "Asami", and finally "Ms. Sato!".

_Maybe this is a good sign, that I can see her immediately._ That meant they weren't doing anything extreme, _Asami could be just fine_–Korra's thoughts paused as she nearly breezed past Asami's room. Flexing her arms and hands with a deep breath, Korra prepared herself to support Asami, whatever she needed. Hell, maybe she could help the doctors heal her. Another shaky breath and the Avatar stepped into the room, immediately zeroing in Asami and the situation at hand.

For the many beats that she stood just past the threshold, ears picking up nothing save the physician's fervent scribbling, Korra could not breathe. She wasn't prepared for this, or anything that involved Asami and _sick_. Korra barely registered her own lips gently calling out to the prone woman.

"Asami.." The doctor looked up, but Asami did not move. Sleeping.

The doctor blinked. Twice. "Avatar Korra?"

Korra failed to reply as she tentatively approached Asami's bed. After a few seconds of flipping, Asami's doctor sighed and looked at Korra again.

"Ah...You're one of her approved visitors, according to the records. Okay. Was the situation explained to you over the phone, or?"

All Korra wanted was to go to Asami, just to see her _breathe_ and hold her hand and tell her she'll be alright. At the woman's inquiry, Korra shifted her attention and responded with a quick shake of her head. Her voice was not trustworthy at the moment.

"I'm Doctor Chen by the way. Sit, please."

The Avatar pulled the nearby chair closer to Asami's bedside, hopelessly clenched her fists to rid herself of some tension, and sat.

"Ms. Sato fell ill in her office today–one of her employees brought her here." Korra nodded. It had been June, Asami's assistant, the one who'd contacted her.

"I will be honest with you. We need to wait and continue our tests before we can offer you any diagnosis, but for now she needs to rest until we can finish those up. There is a specialist coming in tomorrow to take a look at Ms. Sato as well."

The woman pressed her lips together, giving Korra a meaningful look. "Stay with her as long as you like for now. Be patient while we figure out what's going on. It's good she has a friend here at least."

"What's...going on with her now though?" The weakness in her voice was nothing to be despised.

"She's underweight, though it's not too bad, and we had to stop some internal bleeding–which will likely return. There'll be nurses coming in and out to check up. I'll be back in early morning."

With that, Dr. Chen left Korra and Asami alone.

She hadn't had any true expectations, but she had not anticipated something so serious. It was surreal, like one of the fearful thoughts that swirled in that internal maelstrom had actually been a hint at fate. _Another nightmare_. Korra could not peel her eyes from Asami's pale complexion and contrasting dark tresses, black like the suffocating night. Asami didn't deserve this, whatever it was.


	2. II

The Avatar comes to abruptly and rather uncomfortably after spending the night in a chair at her best friend's bedside. She'd woken so suddenly and already the contents of her dream were irretrievable. She wasn't the type to hold to a shred of hope that something like this was a dream or a nightmare. At least, Korra thought with a sigh, she wasn't anymore.

Turning her head to face the sunlight pouring over her head and shoulders from behind, Korra closed her eyes and swallowed, breathing deeply for a few moments. Finally, she stood and took in the early morning rays that pressed insistently through the clouds and beamed down onto Republic City. If she wasn't here, the gorgeous display of gossamer blues and oranges as day lay hold of the sky would fill Korra with a sense of peace.

Her hands were shaking, much like her breath.

_What if she's not okay?_

Korra snapped back to look at Asami as a faint rustling noise–sheets–met her ear. Her face fell and she made her way to the bed, closer than she'd been sitting previously.

No, Asami hadn't been waking yet. The only thing worse than the disappointment of her continued slumber was the stress Korra could see on her friend's visage now. Asami was in pain, having a rough dream, or both.

Korra's faintly quaking hands curled into fists at her displeasure from this realization. As of now, there was nothing she could do to help.

At all.

Frustration wormed its way into the distraught sadness that had plagued the Avatar even before she'd awoken. It settled there, preparing to make a new home until Asami shifted–no, it was more like a small spasm–in her sleep again, peeling Korra away from her vexation with herself.

Asami's face held all the qualities that contributed to her overall status of being more gorgeous than she was rich, by far–but there was something in the naked expression of sleep that pulled at Korra's heart. Unequivocally, her friend needed her here. The idea was distinctly different from her own need to be here with Asami, Korra realized. Her resolve to be here _for Asami_ engaged without a second thought, causing Korra to edge her hand toward Asami's and grasp it gently.

The gesture recalled bittersweet memories of her long recovery when Asami had first offered her undying support to Korra when she needed it most. _Asami_...Korra swallowed whatever had lodged itself in her throat as a wave of emotions ran through her.

In the indeterminate amount of time Korra spent waiting for Asami to wake and her doctor to arrive, she found herself running the pad of her thumb over the deliciously smooth, soft, yet ridged skin of Asami's knuckle. Repeatedly.

At last, Asami began to wake up, drawing Korra's full attention with a raspy whisper of her name. She found herself clutching her friend's hand more tightly now as she blurts "Asami!", but quickly tempers her reaction as to not hurt Asami.

Through Asami's tense, pained grimace and the fogginess of sleep, Korra could see a ghost of a smile on her face. Asami was a wreck–clearly hurting and stricken with that cloud of fatigue that is never dispersed by simple sleep. At the same time this was a faint assurance that Asami was okay in some sense. She was aware, breathing. Korra was unsure she'd heard a sweeter sound than her name issued forth by her best friend. She'd get through this.

"Korra..."

Asami drew a deep shuddering breath, wincing minutely as she exhaled. Their eyes met and Korra could see her smile give way to something nameless she'd barely ever seen in Asami. When she spoke of her mother and father at the moments everything seemed to go wrong it was there, resident in the tiny crease between her brow, that minute frown, and the way her jaw tensed with it. Korra swallowed, suddenly caught up in the crest of a wave of emotion.

"I'm here, Asami."

Asami looked away for a second and slowly, a grateful smile took over her features just before she looked back. Korra smiled back. There was reflex behind the action, but the Avatar found herself trying to placate the evident disarray of emotions in her friend.

The sound of Dr. Chen entering the room shattered the silence building in the room between the two women. She didn't look surprised to see Asami awake or the Avatar still present at her side. Dr. Chen seemed to take everything in with measured perception. She strode toward the opposite side of Asami's bed while assessing the contents of her clipboard carefully. After a few moments she greeted Asami, recieving a sharp nod in reply. If the situation and setting were different, the two women could have simply been having a business meeting, Korra mused somewhere in the back of her mind. But Doctor Chen was speaking now, with all the brutal force of reality behind her lips.

"How are you feeling, Ms. Sato?"

"Tired...drained. Not good. Worst stomachache of my life, if I could call it that. And please, just call me Asami."

Dr. Chen nodded. "Well, Asami, we're bringing in a highly trained specialist from the Northern Water Tribe to help out with your case. They'll be here shortly. In the meantime," Her eyes flicked over to Korra, "I actually need the Avatar to step out while I examine you. Just a few things."

Korra's heart clenched at Asami's brave nod and the underlying trepidation she sensed as her friend once again inhaled shakily as she stood to leave. Gently, she released Asami's hand and rubbed her hands together absentmindedly, missing the warmth that had been there.

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><p>As soon as she could, Korra re-entered Asami's room. She caught the last few words of Dr. Chen on her way out–apparently she'd be back in a few hours with the specialist. Right now, though, Asami seemed even more tense and distraught.<p>

"How'd it go?" Korra asked tentatively.

Something about hearing Asami sigh with so much weight displeased Korra deeply. She took a seat as her friend took time to gather her words and compose herself. Korra gave Asami one of those long looks she reserved for inspecting her best friend. _I'd take it all for her if I could._

"Dr. Chen said the bleeding is from some...anomaly in my small intestine. Apparently its why I've been losing weight and feeling awful for a while.."

Korra took her hand without even thinking about it. Internal bleeding was difficult to treat and problems of this sort were nearly impossible to just a generation ago. Korra recalled Katara's story about how her friend Jet died. Waterbending could not solve all health problems. Not even close. She was tempted to ask Asami questions..but it was not the time.

"You'll get through it Asami..." Spirits, Korra felt so much more than that but she just could not say it. The Avatar found she barely knew what she was feeling. Those tendrils of concern, fear, and deep care for Asami were constricting her chest–she could feel it with every pulse of her heart.

"I just never...prepared for something like this–my mother was killed. My dad is...well, he's fine physically. And I've been training for years but here I am.."

The Avatar found herself with nothing to say to that, but it seemed her thumb was back to stroking Asami's hand.

A long draught of silence passed, broken by a soft whisper of Korra's name.

"Thank you for being here," Asami squeezed Korra's hand in an effort to push her point home. The strength that would have been there normally was lacking, something that did not escape Korra's notice. Rather than dwell on it, she smiled for Asami, at Asami.

She said nothing after that, and Korra found herself accommodating the silence then appreciating it. Eventually realizing she should probably shower and gather some things so she could be prepared to stay here more often, Korra bid Asami goodnight and left.

Stepping onto the pavement and into the cool of night, surrounded by the glow of Republic City was jarring for the Avatar after 24 hours in the hospital.

She made her way back to Air Temple Island pushing away the feeling that the setting sun induced, and finally made her way up the steps to toward her room.

"Korra!"

Tenzin must have used an air wheel or something, because Korra was absolutely certain she'd never seen him move that fast before. Judging by the slightly frazzled state of his beard, there was something wrong. As soon as Tenzin was close enough, his mouth began to run faster than he had been himself just a few seconds earlier.

"By the wind, Korra, where have you been? No one knew where you where and I couldn't get a hold of any of your friends, not even Asami–"

Oh.

"Tenzin," Korra interrupted curtly, crossing her arms, "I'm fine."

He pulled himself together–literally–with a hasty adjustment of his posture and robes, and resumed a fraction of the controlled bending master and monk aura he typically held.

"Right. I'm...sorry. I don't mean to be fussy at all, its just–We were all a little uneasy, is all. Avatars and their disappearances..." Tenzin trailed off, looking away at something in the distance. Korra noticed how closely the orange edges of the sky matched his robes.

"Yeah, I was in the city, with Asami. At the hospital. She's sick." Tenzin's eyes widened at this and he softened, making a sympathetic noise.

"I hope she's all right." Korra let out something in between a scoff and a sob.

"So do I," And then her field of vision flooded orange as Tenzin embraced her for a moment, and Korra wiped the few tears that had fallen when he did.

"Goodnight, Tenzin. I'll be staying over there a lot, so don't freak out." Korra offered Tenzin a small smirk and thanked him, then watched as Meelo scrambled onto his father violently as the man entered his home. In some ways, life just went on normally.

After showering and preparing a bag for the subsequent days at the hospital, Korra heated herself a cup of tea and sat out on the railing of the gazebo overlooking the quaking obsidian waves of Yue Bay, thinking of the person that was missing.

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><p>Thanks for reading, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter :)<p>

Reviews help a lot, and I appreciate anyone that points out errors I may have overlooked!


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